The Perks of Being a Hijabi

Chapter Nine Hussen's POV

I couldn't determine the difference between truth and false from yesterday. The only things I understood were that Zainub was with someone else. My Zainub.

Mama and Baba were silently talking when I went downstairs for breakfast. When they saw me at the bottom of the staircase, they froze.

"Asalamualakum Hussen," Mama smiled at me uneasily. " Hubibi, we need to talk to you okay?" I sat down at the table and began to eat my pancakes lying on the plate in front of me.

"Okay." I said shrugging my shoulders as I poured maple syrup on my pancakes.

"Well, we talked with Hala Najma and Amu Omar. They talked to Zainub and she said that all those things that happened at school yesterday wasn't true. Those girls don't like Zainub so they wanted to do something mean to her. When they found out you guys were engaged those girls made a plan to make Zainub look bad." Mama crossed her arms across her chest. "You have to forgive Zainub, if you aren't able to forgive, how will you be able to live?" Mama looked at me with pain and fatigue in her eyes.

"I forgive for the sake of Allah, and so then I could please Allah." I finished my pancakes, walked out the door with my school bag and drove to Zainub's house.

When I reached her house she was already outside waiting for her brother to come out of the house. She didn't notice me pull up on her driveway, beam cause her back was turned to me.

"Zainub!" I rolled the window down and yelled. Zainub turned her head with a bewildered look covering her face.

"Hussen?!" She ran towards my car in excitement. "I thought you were angry with me Hussen." She leaned against the open window. Her beautiful floral scent wafted into my car.

"I forgave you, I forgave you because I couldn't stand being angry with you. I love you." She beamed as she opened the car door and settled inside the car.

As we walked out of the car, I noticed a few people look at us and whisper things to other people around them. Ya Allah, help these ignorant people, they really need you. Zainub separated from me when she saw her friends, I walked over to my friends.

"Hussen! Asalamualakum my brotha!" My friend Khalid half hugged me half high dives me. You know, the dude hug.

"I'm good Alhumdulillah." I hugged my other friends.

First period was a disaster! The girl who humiliated me and Zainub kept on sneering at me and winking. Like no, I'm not yours to look at! At the end of class she walked over to my desk as I packed my things in my school bag.

"Sooo, I hear your name is Hussen." She placed her hands on my desk.

"Can you like move? You're being really irrelevant." I Glared at her and got up. I heard some people say "Burnnn" or "ooooh" as I walked out of the classroom. As I walked to second period, a sharp nailed hand grabbed my shoulder.

"You don't ever talk to me like that again, or else I'll embarrass you and Zainub again!" It was that annoying Stephanie girl again.

I whipped around to face her.

"Who the heck do you think you are? You really think I'm afraid of you? You're nothing but a puny little girl." I turned around. "Oh and stay away from Zainub." I yelled over my back, I felt proud for defending Zainub. I looked back slightly to see Stephanie was still where she was standing frozen with shock and embarrassment.

At lunch I sat at my usual table with Khalid, Imran and Jakob. As I walked through the lunch line to get my launch I noticed a pink hijabed head. Zainub! I pushed past other people to stand next to her as she reached for a cheese pizza. Just to get her attention I reached for the same pizza. Our hands reached the pizza at the same time. She looked up at me startled, but her shocked look melted away into another one of her perfect smiles.

"Hello lovely." I grabbed the pizza and placed it on her tray, grabbing another for myself.

"Hussen! Remember the three moth separation thingy?" I pushed me away playfully as we walked together to the snack line.

"I just wanted to say hi, is that that bad?" I fake sobbed.

"You're such a flirt!" She bounded away to her table with her friends. I remember the last time she called me a flirt, it was at our lunch date.

I sighed inwardly as I walked back to my table, my thought filled with Zainub.